Stepping Back

Everyone knows that taking a break once in a while from the everyday responsibilities is important, right?

It’s also so hard to do.  As a parent I don’t make myself  take breaks often enough, and that’s pretty much true of my writing life as well.  

RIght now, though, I’m forced to take a break, forced to step back from the historical fiction novel I’m working on.  I think the only reason I’m willing to do it is because I HAVE to.  You see, I’m off to a writing retreat that includes a manuscript review/crit by a working agent.  That means I gave the agent my piece and now I have to sit on it until we meet in early November.  How crazy is that?  This thing that I know is way underdeveloped has to be set aside – because what good would it be if I show up with a radically revised manuscript to get her feedback on the work I’ve already written?

It’s the same anxiety I have when I leave my children with babysitters – will everything go okay?  Is this really necessary?  Isn’t there something more productive I could do with my time?

But the other thing that I have to do before I go to the retreat is go back to a manuscript I’ve set aside since November.  I didn’t set it aside because it’s lousy (like my first three books – may those files never resurface on this computer!) but because I was focusing on my historical piece.  I have to submit the first 25 pages as a mentorship proposal by November 1st.  Will I feel like I am seeing an old friend?  Or will I wonder why the hell I decided to come to this class reunion anyhow?  I hope I still like it…

I’ll check in with that metaphor in a week.